I’m late in catching up to some articles, but I did read CareerJournal’s excellent Three Tips from Gen-Y About the New Workplace. There are some intriguing points here so let’s start with this gem: Gen-Yers crave feedback from bosses, clients and co-workers about what they should be doing, how they should do it, and, afterward, how they can do it better next time, she says. This approach is effective for more than just employee discussions, but also for customer interactions. We discussed some of these topics in one of our articles from earlier this year – Hiring Adjustments for Generations X and Y. Lastly, an epiphany for a Baby Boomer… Read More
Continue ReadingMost Prestigious Careers
How did salesperson not make this list? Ok, maybe we are not completely objective about this topic.
Continue ReadingWhat Workers Want?
An envelope caught my eye this past week as I was rifling through my junk mail. Printed on the envelope was “Employee Recruitment & Retention.” Since that is my field, I decided to open it up. Inside, I found a complimentary copy of a monthly newsletter from Lawrence Ragan Communications dedicated to employee recruitment & retention. I’ve never heard of this company, but I discovered a couple of interesting short articles on employee retention in their Quotes & Statistics section. First, What do workers want? You may be surprised. In it were the results of a survey of more than 1,000 US workers by the Sarratoga Institute (my emphasis). When… Read More
Continue ReadingCorporate Policies Regarding Blogs
Blogs are popping up at 1 per second according to the latest Sales&Marketing Management email. Here are some interesting facts regarding developing corporate communications (sorry, no link): –Just over a quarter of employers have terminated employees for e-mail misuse. Another 2 percent have dismissed workers for inappropriate IM chat. And nearly 2 percent have fired workers for offensive blog content including posts on employees’ personal, home-based blogs. –While 35 percent of employees use IM at work, only 31 percent of organizations have an IM policy in place, and 13 percent retain IM business records. 50 percent of workplace users are downloading free IM tools from the Internet. –Blogs are booming… Read More
Continue ReadingMonster.com Sees Dip in Online Recruitment
A quick blurb of a story from TechWeb about Monster.com’s numbers released for June. 24 of the 28 major markets showed lower online recruitment activity. They do mention that Minneapolis and St. Louis actually saw an increase in online activity for the month. We can attest to that fact in our local sourcing campaigns. I think this excerpt cuts to the quick of the entire story: “Broader business expansion activities slowed with the start of the summer vacation season.” We see this trend every year – July and August are truly hit-or-miss months of the year. Vacation schedules play a major part in it. One anomaly, traditionally we have had… Read More
Continue ReadingRecruiting the Younger Generation
I just caught up to some reading on Workforce Management’s website. Ready for the Big Time captivated my attention. The author references a company where candidates are hired similar to an NFL-style draft. You have to register at the site but it is free. The article is quite long but I’ll give you the high points. The article is written about what National Oilwell Varco’s (NOV) chief executive did in response to seeing that most of his executives and upper managment positions were being held by baby boomers. He put his Senior VP of Sales and Director of Employee Development on the task to develop a system to recruit their… Read More
Continue ReadingWhen To Place An Ad
We constantly debate when is the best time to place an employment ad online. Lately we have been receiving mixed signals from other articles, our job board reps and our own experience. There certainly is not a consensus opinion on this topic. When I was younger, we used to go to beach parties where everyone would bring a liquor, a juice and a fruit. We would throw everyone’s “donation” into a large vat, mix it up and call it a Wapatui. For years I had no idea what that meant, but I think employment ads often resemble a Wapatui. A little of this, something from there and we’ll post it… Read More
Continue ReadingSocial Networking Between Candidates and Your Employees
All honesty here, we are not well informed on the entire social networking side of the web. We’re just starting to use Digg and del.icio.us so our knowledge is limited. But this CareerJournal story is loaded with foreshadowing. Getting the Scoop On a Future Boss discusses the changes occurring in the social networking field by allowing job seekers to connect with existing employees at a company. From the author: Until recently, social networking on the Web was confined to hubs for young people seeking to meet and chat. Now, there is growing interest in adapting social networking to the business world — both among networking sites looking to expand their… Read More
Continue ReadingHiring the Right People
Quick-hitting article from Inc.com called Employers Fear Shortage of Workers. The takeaway paragraph: Employee productivity isn’t the only concern for employers, according to the survey — 41% of small-business owners cite hiring the right people with the right job skills as the number one employment issue they face, with retaining and motivating employees at a close second. There is a way to improve your hiring success.
Continue ReadingRight Brain Creativity in Business
I read this Marketing Profs’ article yesterday – Left Brain, Right Brain: Creating a New Business Model – and then deleted it. But I have been thinking about it during this busy day with customers. It is an thought-provoking article that takes me back to my days as a psych major in college. I chalked it up to my own interests, but the thesis is quite applicable to today’s hiring model. Here’s what piqued my interest: Stephen J. Adler, Editor-in-Chief of Business Week, has dubbed today’s business environment “the Creativity Economy.” Interesting catch phrase. Then came this: After all, if business executives are expected to become creative thinkers, problem solvers,… Read More
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